If you’re involved in any kind of corporate event planning as part of your role with your employer, one notable element of budgeting and planning will often come up: Justifying your expenses to management and company leadership. The use of ROI, or return on investment, is a common approach to help prove the value of your events to company leaders.
At In The Event, we’re proud to offer a huge range of corporate event planning services, from event decor rentals to any kind of planning and coordination your event requires. Here are some of the specific tips we recommend to clients when it comes to proving the value of your corporate event to leadership through the use of ROI and similar approaches.
As you’re beginning to plan your corporate event, it’s important to establish clear, stated goals. What are you hoping to achieve through this event? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or foster employee engagement? Whatever the goal may be, make sure it is clearly defined and communicated to both your team and company leadership. This will help guide the decision-making process for all aspects of the event.
For instance, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you may want to focus on creating a visually appealing and memorable event that showcases your company’s values and offerings. On the other hand, if generating leads is the main objective, you may want to prioritize networking opportunities and include interactive activities or demos to showcase your products or services.
Having a clearly stated event goal will also help measure the success of the event and determine areas for improvement in future events.
When we talk about KPIs, we’re referring to key performance indicators. These are measurable values that can help evaluate the success of an event and track progress towards achieving its goals.
Some common KPIs for events include:
It’s important to establish these KPIs before the event takes place so that proper tracking and analysis can be done afterwards. This will also allow for adjustments to be made during the event if necessary.
It’s often helpful to involve management in the creation of these KPIs, especially if leadership has raised issues about event budgets in the past. By involving them in the process, you can better demonstrate the value and potential return on investment of hosting events.
Now that youv’e established your KPIs, it’s important to regularly track and measure them in order to determine the overall success of your event. This can be done through various methods such as surveys, attendee feedback forms, social media analytics, and post-event sales data.
Collecting feedback forms from attendees during or after the event is a great way to gather real-time feedback on their experiences. This can also provide valuable information for future events and help identify areas for improvement.
Analyzing social media mentions and engagement during the event is another way to gauge attendee satisfaction. Tracking hashtags, comments, and likes can give insights into what attendees are enjoying and sharing about the event.
It’s also important to continue tracking attendee satisfaction and engagement after the event has ended. This can provide valuable data for future events and give insight into long-term impact.
One way to do this is through post-event surveys. These can be sent out via email or through social media platforms, and should cover a range of topics such as overall satisfaction, favorite sessions or speakers, and any areas for improvement.
Another method is to track post-event social media mentions and engagement. This can not only help gauge attendee satisfaction, but also create buzz and raise awareness for future events.
And finally, it is important to share the success and impact of your event with leadership or decision-makers within your organization. This can help secure future funding and support for similar events, as well as demonstrate the value of hosting events for both attendees and the company.
One way to do this is by creating a comprehensive post-event report that includes key metrics, attendee feedback, and any notable achievements or outcomes from the event. This report can then be shared with relevant stakeholders along with a summary presentation outlining the overall success of the event.
Additionally, providing tangible evidence of how the event contributed to organizational goals or objectives can also be helpful in showcasing its impact. For example, if the goal was to increase brand awareness, sharing metrics that showcase how this was done through the event (e.g. social media impressions, press coverage) can be very impactful.
At In The Event, we’re here to help with all your corporate event planning service needs, including proving value and ROI to leadership. For more here, contact our team at your convenience!
